Near real-time determination of B.1.1.7 in proportion to total SARS-CoV-2 viral load in wastewater using an allele-specific primer extension PCR strategy.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has claimed millions of lives to date. Antigenic drift has resulted in viral variants with putatively greater transmissibility, virulence, or both. Early and near real-time detection of these variants of concern (VOC) and the ability to accurately follow their incidence and prevalence in communities is wanting.

COVID-19 wastewater surveillance in rural communities: Comparison of lagoon and pumping station samples.

Wastewater-based epidemiology/wastewater surveillance has been a topic of significant interest over the last year due to its application in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to track prevalence of COVID-19 in communities. Although SARS-CoV-2 surveillance has been applied in more than 50 countries to date, the application of this surveillance has been largely focused on relatively affluent urban and peri-urban communities. As such, there is a knowledge gap regarding the implementation of reliable wastewater surveillance in small and rural communities for the purpose of tracking rates of incidence of COVID-19 and other pathogens or biomarkers.

An sRNA Screen for Reversal of Quinolone Resistance in .

In light of the rising prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the slow pace of new antimicrobial development, there has been increasing interest in the development of adjuvants that improve or restore the effectiveness of existing drugs. Here, we use a novel small RNA (sRNA) screening approach to identify genes whose knockdown increases ciprofloxacin (CIP) sensitivity in a resistant strain of 5000 sRNA constructs were initially screened on a S83L background, ultimately leading to 30 validated genes whose disruption reduces CIP resistance. This set includes genes involved in DNA replication, repair, recombination, efflux, and other regulatory systems.

The mutational landscape of quinolone resistance in Escherichia coli.

The evolution of antibiotic resistance is influenced by a variety of factors, including the availability of resistance mutations, and the pleiotropic effects of such mutations. Here, we isolate and characterize chromosomal quinolone resistance mutations in E. coli, in order to gain a systematic understanding of the rate and consequences of resistance to this important class of drugs.